The original Birkin made in fact by the then owner and user Jane Birkin, has broken the records by being auctioned in a Sotheby event in Paris to sell at €8.58 million ($10 million or Rs 86 crore, approximately), according to Reuters on Thursday. This sale is not only a historic moment in the fashion of luxury but it is the most expensive handbag to be sold in any auction.
The older record belonged to a Hermes White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Retourne Kelly 28, auctioned in 2021 to a final price of 513,040. The original Birkin did not simply surpassed that, but has long outstripped it.
This bag was designed to suit the needs of the British French actress and a vocalist by the name Jane Birkin in the year 1984. Birkin allegedly met then-CEO of Hermes Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight to London according to Associated Press. Having dumped her stuff on the cabin floor, she added how handbags always did not seem to reach the point when they had enough room. Dumas reacted by drawing a new design on her, on the spot an airplane vomit bag.
The result of that goofy sketch is one of the most everlasting and exclusive status symbols of fashion. When Hermes planned to introduce the bag into the market on a commercial basis, the company requested Birkin whether it could use her name. She complied and Birkin was born.
And this is the very prototype, which Dumas had produced on Birkin after meeting him-which this week came under the hammer, and at last passed into the hands of a private Japanese collector.
Sotheby s wrote that the jet-black leather item was at that time, one of the most iconic fashion objects ever made and has seven design features that could not be reproduced in any of the birkin bags that followed.
The Birkin is more than a product, it has since developed into a cultural icon with a lasting appeal than being a functional bag, Sotheby said. It exists in the music, film, television and the art world; it is a red carpet sight, a fashion magazine must-have and it hangs in the closets of celebrities, artists and stylists the world over.”
And although its 10 million may appear to be the most, the Birkin is yet not the most expensive fashion item that ever went on auction. The honour would have to belong to the ruby red slippers worn by Munchkin Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, which have sold at a staggering 32.5 million in 2024, not adjusted, as the values go up to the sky (Sotheby).
And therefore to the unquestionably great fashion icon in history it is, a Sotheby sale in Paris yesterday, witnessed the selling of the original prototype at 7 million euros. Japanese collector, Jane Birkin will now become the owner but he will have to pay a total of eight point six million euros by Sotheby Paris, the institution, not later than July 15. 8.6 million approximately translates to 10.1 million dollars.
The auction started at 1 million and ended in somewhat violent bidding war of 20 ways with the victory being reportedly finished in 13 minutes and 33 seconds. The highest bid was 7 million euros, so the piece became the most expensive world fashion accessory. Catherine B, earlier owner of the Birkin was not only sentimental but also joyous as she said that she and her bag had shared so many good times together and whatever happened to her bag and its new owner she could not decide to do.
A bit of food and some reassurance: When it is something of such high historic concern, the extent to which you experience parasocial nostalgic epic, that the topic and item mean nothing whatsoever in real-time, to you, is entirely natural.
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